Succulents and More™

If you’re like me, you have a hard time believing it’s April already. April! I haven’t started any major projects this year, but it’s still worth taking a quick look at the garden before spring is over for good. The California poppies are already fading and going to seed, so summer isn’t that far off. View through the ponytail palms towards the house; the front door is to the right Bed next to the front door The front door is on the right. New solar spotlights from Costco, uplighting the ponytail palms and the Aloe vaombe at night. Most of the aloes are done blooming for the year, but there’s never a shortage of other flowers. Several of my hechtias have started to bloom — a bit early, it seems. Hechtia argentea produces almost comically tall inflorescences. The flowers themselves are white, tiny, and insignificant. Hechtia lanata , on the other hand, has a pretty showy inflorescence: short and fluffy This Hechtia lanata has been in the ground for 5+ years, but this is the first time ...

On Saturday, my friend Theresa had an open garden for the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society . I’d visited before (and I posted about it here ) but every time I pull into her driveway, I go “wow.” It’s not only the size of her property — almost two acres, enormous by my suburban standards — but also the architecture of her house. This is her front door: A side patio with her collection of potted mesembs: As you can see, Theresa is serious about mesembs , especially conophytums . The latter range from small to tiny, and you’d think that they’re easy to kill, considering how fragile they look. Let’s put it this way: It wouldn’t take me long to kill them, but Theresa has figured out what their cultivation needs are. Theresa and her husband built their Southwest-inspired home 30+ years ago. It would look right at home in Arizona or New Mexico, but in Northern California, you almost never see this style of architecture. The burnt orange color makes a fantastic backdrop for plants, as ...